Thursday, April 12, 2012

a prize in the post

Remember the SolidSocks Ravelry group with the bi-monthly KALs that I’m always banging on about? Well, one of the great things about that group is that each of the KALs is sponsored, and if you finish your socks within the two months and post your pic to the group you get entered into a prize draw to win something from the lovely sponsors. Now, I can count the number of times I’ve ever won anything on one hand. The first prize I can ever remember winning was a beautiful doll in a sapphire blue velvet dress that I won after having the closest guess at the number of Smarties in a jar at a school fete when my age was still in single digits. My second prize was a set of paints I won during a colouring in contest one summer in Singapore when I was still of a single digit age. To be honest, I don’t even remember entering, all I remember is sitting at the kitchen table as my Mum placed a set of Bebe branded paints in front of me and told me I’d won them in a colouring in contest. In retrospect, that could well have been one of those parental white lies told to keep me happy and quiet in the midst of a very long summer, but I’ve always believed that I won them so it stands as my prize number two. And last weekend when I logged onto Ravelry, I discovered that my Galileo socks had won me prize number three.

To say I was giddy with glee would be an understatement. If you don’t believe me, the Boy can attest to my bouncing round the kitchen and squealing with joy as I cooked dinner. After calming down (just a tad) and getting in touch with Karen, the sponsor, she graciously told me to visit her shop, choose whichever project bag I liked, and she would pop it in the post for me. I am not decisive at the best of times, and she has sooo many lovelies that it took me quite a while to choose one! For a while I was really torn between this floral print and these really fun, bright birds, but the panda bag just reeled me in the end. The print was just too cute to resist! The bag arrived from the US to the UK in less than a week, and it is so beautifully made and I am so much in love with it that I just had to share it with you!

I’m not much of a seamstress, but I can tell that there has been so much care and attention put into the making of this bag. The seams are flawless and it arrived beautifully pressed and packaged. There’s a clear plastic pocket stitched into one side of the inner lining which would be perfect for holding a pattern or some notes and a few notions. The bag’s a pretty good size too, large enough to comfortably hold the two cones of Colourmart yarn that I’m currently using for my Stripe Study shawl, plus needles and knitting with room to spare, but the fabric is soft enough that a smaller project like a pair of socks would be equally at home inside.

There’s even a cute little stitch marker attached to the tag! I love little details like that, and I love the fact that even though this was a free prize I was still made to feel like a valued customer. As soon as my bank balance isn’t looking quite so pitiful I would love to head straight back to BlueTulips and stock up on a few more of these lovelies. There are some great zippered pouches that look like they might make a good home for my dpns, which are currently amassed in a rather unattractive pile on my floor.

So a huge thank you goes out from me to Karen at BlueTulips and all the other lovely sponsors, and the SolidSocks team for putting these KALs together. I might still only be able to count my wins on one hand, but at least my projects have a pretty bag to live in now!